


Never Better

by satonawall (forgetmequite)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 09:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10828794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetmequite/pseuds/satonawall
Summary: Three times Alec offers to give Magnus a backrub + one time Magnus asks for one.





	Never Better

**Author's Note:**

> The timeline of this fic is as hazy as that of 2A, but the first part takes place sometime before 2.03, the second kind of between 2.07 & 2.08, the third after 2.08 and the last one right after 2.10.

Magnus felt Alec’s presence in the loft well before he appeared on the doorway to Magnus’s study, leaning against the doorframe like the very welcome distraction he was.

“Hi,” Magnus said, looking up and giving Alec a smile before going back to his work, “I just need to finish this page. There was an unexpected thing, I’m running a little late.”

He looked up again to catch that delightful, lop-sided smile he knew his words would get from Alec – there were always unexpected things, in both of their lines of work – and dove back into the translation, feeling more than seeing Alec stretch his legs out on the sofa and grab a book.

“Take your time.”

Magnus’s handwriting got clearly more hurried after that, and he’d have to remember to really rethink a few of his verb forms later, but right then, all that mattered was that in less than ten minutes, he was closing his books and getting up from his chair and-

Wincing because being crouched over his desk for most of the afternoon without moving had made his shoulders feel like they were made of granite which in turn had given him a headache, apparently. You’d think being an immortal would give you a free pass to such mundane problems, but sadly the answer still remained a harsh no.

“You okay?”

Alec was standing before Magnus could even turn to look at him, the book closed on the coffee table. Magnus made a face at him.

“It’s just a headache. You know how it is, sitting at a desk all day.”

Alec took a few more steps until he was standing next to Magnus, his expression quickly changed into what Magnus had once heard Izzy call his Overly Concerned Head of the Institute face. It was... Really sweet, actually, something warm sloshing in Magnus’s stomach at the sight of Alec looking at him like he’d personally walk over hot coals to make Magnus feel better.

“Would you like me to-“

Alec’s hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, completed the sentence better than Alec himself could have, his words escaping him like they sometimes did.

As it happened, Magnus would have loved a backrub, but he’d also seen the way Alec practically punched his own shoulders when they felt stiff, an activity whose main goal seemed to be to pulverise his muscles to such an extent that whatever pieces remaining would be too small to ache, fingers occasionally poking in the most painful spots in ways that, going by the look on Alec’s face, did not exactly do much to relieve the pain.

He might be head over heels for this man- Ah, scratch that; he was head over heels for this man, and so he’d really prefer it if he didn’t accidentally tell Alec he’d much rather have his shoulders run over by a steamroller than give Alec free rein to rub them.

“Thank you for the kind offer,” he said, his fingers brushing against Alec’s as he reached to place his hand on his neck, “but it’s nothing a little magic can’t fix.”

The words were true, although the improvement in Magnus’s mood was probably as much due to Alec’s fascination as he watched Magnus soothe away the knots in his shoulders as it was to the actual magic.

“There,” he said. “All better.”

The rest of the evening was spent on the balcony talking, their thighs brushing against each other and Alec angling his body towards Magnus, his eyes often flashing to that sweet, tender look Magnus still had trouble believing was actually meant for him, that Alec got _because of_ him.

By the time the doors closed after Alec, Magnus had thoroughly forgotten he’d ever had knots on his shoulders anyway.

 

\---

 

“Have you been standing like that all day?”

Magnus shouldn’t have looked up from the potion; there was a very real chance it might literally blow up in his face. But he just couldn’t resist getting a small glimpse of Alec, lounging on one of Magnus’s armchairs, the book he’d been reading still open in his lap. He would be leaving soon enough, only having come in for a few hours before the night shift he had ahead of him, and they hadn’t really talked much. The potion Magnus was working on was a customer order, and a tricky one at that; it needed if not his full attention, then at least a lion’s share of it. But it was nice to know that Alec was in the room anyway, that he’d prefer to kill time in Magnus’s presence rather than somewhere else.

Alec still didn’t feel all that at ease in the Institute after Jocelyn’s death, and Magnus did not know how to tell him how much it meant to him that Magnus’s loft seemed to have become his refuge. Especially after... If he let himself (and he had, multiple times after the fact), he could still feel Alec’s body against his own, Alec’s inexperienced but eager hands on his chest, his thighs, his- The memories, pleasurable as they were (and they were) had the potential to make him anxious, too familiar with how a lover’s feelings could cool down about as quickly as their body did, afterwards. But Alec’s text earlier ( _I know you’re busy, but can I drop by for a while? Won’t be a nuisance but I’d like to at least see you today_ ) and his quiet presence in Magnus’s study now had calmed that anxiety into a quiet hope that maybe his heart was not lying to him, that maybe it really would be different with Alec.

So excuse him if he straightened up from where he’d been crouched around the cauldron to smirk at Alec.

“As if you haven’t been enjoying the view.”

Alec returned the expression, his eyes sparkling. Magnus didn’t miss the deliberate way Alec’s gaze dropped downwards on Magnus’s body again, as it doubtlessly had multiple times already. “I didn’t say I haven’t.”

The potion nearly boiled over, breaking the delicious tension between them by forcing Magnus to refocus on his work. Alec let it drop; the next time Magnus glanced up, he was reading again.

“But seriously,” Alec said later when Magnus was chopping up more ingredients to add, “your back must be killing you.”

Magnus finished his chopping and set aside his knife. “It’s been worse.”

Alec persisted. “It must have also been better. You could use a massage.”

It was clearly an offer, even if Alec didn’t say it outright. Magnus had half a mind to take him up on it; if Alec was truly as bad at backrubs as Magnus had initially thought, it would probably be easy to reroute his hands into more enjoyable pursuits.

Alas, however much Magnus would have currently loved to blow off his work for Alec, he couldn’t.

Magnus gave him a rueful smile. “Much as I’d like your hands on me again, this won’t be ready for hours, and it cannot wait.”

Alec didn’t push, and he had to leave for his patrol soon enough anyway, brushing his lips against Magnus’s cheek as he went and leaving Magnus just a little bit more enamoured than he’d already been.

He had to put all thoughts towards that end aside when the potion almost burned, requiring absolutely all of his attention. But hours later, when he’d finally finished bottling the thing and could actually focus on the room around him, he noticed a glass of water and a painkiller on the coffee table, next to the book with Alec’s bookmark. Magnus didn’t know how long he looked at them, and he certainly didn’t want to know how much his eyes were revealing.

He wasn’t even sure if he kept painkillers in the loft.

 

\---

 

“And that’s why I don’t really care for Edinburgh,” Magnus finished his tale with a flourish.

Alec laughed dutifully, and Magnus was just about to launch into another story about sieges when Alec put his hand on Magnus’s thigh.

“Magnus.”

There was a level of seriousness in Alec’s voice that Magnus had been trying to avoid, but, well. He could only dodge a conversation for so long if he insisted on talking to Alec every day. “What?”

“You need to relax.”

Magnus gestured at the patio, at the view of the Brooklyn Bridge and their recently emptied wine glasses. “I thought that’s what we were doing.”

Alec smiled but wasn’t deterred. “You’re not relaxing, you’re distracting.”

Magnus stood up to grab another bottle of wine, turning his face away from Alec.

“Considering I’m no closer to finding my spell book than I was when it was first taken,” he said, hoping against all hope that Alec would buy his light tone, “maybe I find being distracted relaxing.”

He could hear Alec get up as well, so it was no surprise when Alec appeared behind him, his hands moving to slide up Magnus’s arms.

“I’m sure your shoulders would disagree.”

“My shoulders usually follow my hea-ahhh!”

Alec’s hands had reached the body part in question, and his thumbs dug into the hard muscles and the knots that Magnus hadn’t got around to magicking away before Alec’s arrival. Magnus felt the initial shock of pain vibrate through his body, but it wasn’t followed by another, worse one the way he’d expected when he’d proclaimed to himself he’d rather take his chances with a steam roller. It was followed by that small, content feeling of pleasure you got when you ceased to feel pain where there previously had been some.

“You actually know what you’re doing,” Magnus said, not taking care to mask the wonder in his voice.

“Izzy taught herself how to be the best forensic pathologist in New York in just five years.” Alec didn’t stop his massage, just moved his hands slightly to get at different parts of Magnus’s shoulders. “Who do you think took care of the tension in her shoulders after hours of studying, year after year?”

Magnus didn’t answer in words; the quiet, almost involuntary moan he let out probably spoke for itself.

Alec’s hands stilled as he stepped closer, his chest brushing against Magnus’s back, his head pushing down until his face was buried against the side of Magnus’s neck.

“Let me do this for you, please.”

Magnus took a deep breath, let his body relax as much as it could and savoured the feeling of Alec’s breath on his skin.

“Okay.”

Alec pressed a quick kiss to the side of Magnus’s jaw, withdrew his head and began working at Magnus’s shoulders. Magnus leaned back and let him, his eyes falling closed as tension began slowly easing away.

“Is it very different, when you do this with magic?” Alec asked conversationally.

“The end result is the same.” Magnus took a deep breath as Alec’s hands found a particularly stubborn knot. “But with magic it’s all over in seconds. Sometimes going through the process feels nice.”

“I like doing it for you,” Alec said, his voice fading towards the end, and Magnus knew without having to check that Alec was looking away, embarrassed at the truth of his words.

It was just as well; Magnus wasn’t exactly willing to let Alec know how deeply Alec’s willingness to take care of Magnus affected him, how it seeped into his skin fixing everything broken in its way like the most potent of magic, probably too potent and too soon to handle for someone just starting his first relationship, definitely too soon for Magnus to put into words for him. He kept his tone light when he said, “You’re very good at it, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Alec laughed, a quick, awkward sound, but his hands didn’t falter and his voice came out steady. “Anytime.”

Magnus smiled to himself and did his best to drown out the three words burning in his mouth with a loud, conscious chorus of ‘too soon, too soon, _too soon_ ’.

 

\---

 

They’d spoken very little, after finding each other in front of the Institute and exchanging words that could carry Magnus for a lifetime if it came to that. There hadn’t been much chance to, both of them being pulled away by other obligations. The eventful, fear-filled evening and night gave way to a day filled with heart-wrenching phone calls and bureaucratic nonsense, and Magnus truly couldn’t tell if the hint of a headache he couldn’t quite ignore was because of unfortunate working positions or because that’s just what always happened when you had to deal with a group of shadowhunters.

But eventually things that required Magnus’s attention got fewer and fewer until they became something he could comfortably slot into his schedule for the following day (the afternoon; he hadn’t slept in what felt like an eternity, and he would be of use to absolutely no one if he didn’t remedy that soon) and he could take the time to wander through the Institute until he stumbled on Alec, deep in discussion with Raj. They spotted him at the same time, and Raj hastened away, probably giving an excuse under his breath that Magnus didn’t hear. Magnus didn’t know whose benefit his exit was for, and he didn’t much care.

“Free for a while?”

Alec smiled, as tired as Magnus felt. “Until tomorrow. You?”

“Same.” It was the easiest thing to offer Alec his hand, and it was the sweetest feeling to have Alec accept it without a moment of hesitation. “Come home with me?”

“Where else would I go?”

Where else? Magnus had not given the matter the slightest thought, but his heart still leapt faster at the thought that Alec hadn’t either. Alec loved him, and Alec couldn’t imagine any other place to be after a terrible ordeal but with Magnus. He created the portal, and they stepped through it into Magnus’s loft.

The portal had barely faded after them when Magnus turned towards Alec, crowding against him in a way that made his intentions very clear. He’d yearned for this when they’d been separated, both tending to their responsibilities, needing to feel Alec under his fingertips, on his skin, against his lips, to rid himself of that small ghost of a feeling that kept whispering to him that it couldn’t possibly be true, that it was a fiction created of fear and wishful thinking. Alec responded eagerly, as if he felt the same desperate need to assume himself that all of Magnus was truly there.

Alec’s phone rang.

Magnus rolled his eyes even as he took a step back, letting Alec fish the offending item out of his pocket. It better be just a quick check, he thought, or whoever on the other end of the line would have a piece of his mind.

Alec glanced down at his phone and summarily turned it off.

Gosh, Magnus was so in love with him.

Having pushed the phone back into his pocket, Alec bridged the distance Magnus had put between them, leaving a few inches between their faces. “Sorry about that.”

Magnus raised his hand to cup the side of Alec’s face, stroking his thumb along Alec’s cheek. Yes, he really was there, flesh and blood and evidently unwilling to be anywhere else. Magnus was so tired the only thing keeping him awake was probably the ache in his muscles, but he truly wasn’t dreaming.

“No need to be,” he said before finally removing all space from between them and kissing Alec.

Alec responded enthusiastically, his hands coming to rest on Magnus’s waist. Magnus let himself get lost in the kiss; continents could have shifted and Valentine himself materialised in his living room and he wouldn’t have noticed.

The same, however, could not have been said for his headache; he only had to tilt his head trying to get a different angle at Alec’s mouth and it reminded him of its existence by sending a quick, lingering throb of pain at him.

Alec had to notice it as well. He pulled away, just a little, and gave Magnus a worried look. “You okay?”

Magnus forced a smile. “Of course. Just a little tired. And very happy to get away from everyone else.”

Alec rested his forehead against Magnus’s, his hands coming up to grasp Magnus’s shoulders. “Me too. All I’ve wanted all day is to get away from it all and be with you.”

As Alec spoke, his hands moved on Magnus’s shoulders absent-mindedly. One of his fingers pressed close to a particularly painful spot, almost providing the sweet relief of a massage, and it suddenly dawned on Magnus that Alec would probably be more than willing to provide him with a backrub to soothe away that pesky headache if he wanted. He’d only have to ask.

”Could you-” Magnus cursed at himself. He didn’t usually have so much trouble voicing out his desires. But he also wasn’t used to asking for things like this, asking to be taken care of. That usually went the other way around. “That is, your muscles must be sore as well, but... I could take you up on that massage offer, if you were okay with that.”

Alec was silent for just long enough for Magnus to feel the first inklings of dread creep in, but when Alec did speak, it was breathless, awe-filled, and accompanied by a smile that looked like a sunrise. “Okay.”

They made their way into the bedroom and got rid of their shoes and shirts. Magnus settled on the bed, Alec straddling his legs.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Alec said as he set to work and Magnus closed his eyes. “Or do, I guess, you must be really tired.”

“Mmmmh.” Magnus smiled against the sheets. “You sure you’re not too tired for this?”

“Magnus,” Alec’s lovingly exasperated tone made Magnus’s smile grow bigger, “stop thinking and let me take care of you.”

Magnus laughed, the sound as light as he felt in that moment, and for once in his life did as told.

Despite their respective positions, there was nothing sexual or even sensual about the massage; which made sense, given that Alec had learnt with his sister. But Alec’s touch was caring even when his hands were causing momentary hurt, and that care, that _love_ , so happily and freely given, reached deeper inside Magnus than Alec’s hands ever could, unwinding tensions that had nothing to do with physiology or too much time spent bent over a desk at all.

Maybe that was why he couldn’t remember any of the massages he’d received in his very long life coming even close to this. He had been the happy beneficiary of many along the years, including a not insignificant amount given by highly trained masseuses. Logically, he knew Alec’s massage could not have been as skilful, but memory was a funny thing (Magnus should know) and he could swear he’d never felt as heavenly as he did his face against his mattress and the man he loved, the man who _loved him_ , digging into every single knot in Magnus’s muscles like he never planned on doing anything else.

Logic had no place in a situation such as this, Magnus decided and banished all other thoughts from his head, just concentrating on that sweet, blissful feeling that was blooming in his chest.

The next thing he consciously registered was when Alec’s hands finally stilled and Alec moved off Magnus’s body to lie down next to him, settling in against Magnus’s side. “You still awake?”

Without opening his eyes, Magnus raised his arm from where it had become trapped between their bodies and threw it around Alec’s body, pulling him closer. “Of course.”

Alec came willingly, pressing a quick kiss against Magnus’s shoulder and settled in to cuddle, his legs intertwining with Magnus’s. “Feel better?”

“Much better.” Magnus finally opened his eyes, if only to better locate Alec’s forehead so he could offer him a kiss of his own. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Alec said, and the sincerity in his voice almost felt familiar, like it was something Magnus was allowed to get used to.

Right there, with Alec relaxed in his arms, it really felt like something he would eventually get used to.

Magnus tilted his head downwards, and Alec craned his neck to meet Magnus’s lips. The kiss was slow and soft, with all the tenderness of their earlier kisses but not so urgent.

Alec’s hand fingers brushed against Magnus’s chest, slowly travelling downwards until they halted at the waistband of Magnus’s trousers, the implication clear. “Did you want-“

Magnus blinked slowly, breathing in the smell of Alec’s hair. He could feel the desire coursing through him, a quiet undercurrent that usually followed whenever he spent time with Alec, but the massage had left him languid and sleepy, and trying to grasp at his own want felt like trying to catch smoke from a glass case with his bare hands. It wasn’t going anywhere, but right now...

“In the morning,” he said, trailing meaningless figures against Alec’s back, letting his hand dip downwards in the faintest hint of a promise. “Unless you have somewhere else to be.”

Alec let out a laugh, his breath tickling against Magnus’s skin. “I turned off my phone for a reason.”

His hand migrated to Magnus’s waist, settling there like he had no intention of moving it until they’d wake up well-rested. The same seemed to go for Alec’s whole body, cuddled up against Magnus like he’d never been anywhere better. Magnus summoned a blanket to cover them, not willing to disturb their comfortable position, turning off the lights while he was at it.

“I love you,” he said into the darkness.

He could hear the joy in Alec’s voice when he responded. “I love you too.”

Magnus closed his eyes, feeling sleep slowly starting to overtake his body. He fell asleep feeling happy and cared for, and for what was almost the first time in a long while, willing to believe that feeling would continue long into the future.


End file.
